REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 41 



be materialized in WasUingtou. (Jiie is the exhibit of skeleti^is of 

 mau and horse (PL 30), shown side by side, with the homologies of 

 the boues indicated by a parallel system of labeling, the other the 

 iiionnting of the races of domestic pigeons in one case upon a stand 

 in the form of a dovecote, the specimens being so arranged as to show 

 their relationship to each other and to the parent form, the rock dove. 



A similar project is being worked out for the domestic fowl, but is 

 not yet in final shape. 



Another advance is that effected by Mr. Lucas in showing, side by 

 side, all the principal variations of the vertebrate skull, the homologies 

 of the bones being indicated by a system of coloration modilied from 

 that already in use in the Natural History Museum in ^Filan, Italj'. 



A minor feature which seems t(j add materially to the c(mifort and 

 convenience of many visitors is the reading table, a sketch of which 

 is here given as a substitute for a detailed description (Fig 9). There 

 are some thirty of these tables, one for each department, and about 500 

 books are thus placed at the service of visitors. The books on the tables 

 are text books, bibliographies, dictionaries, and standard works of refer- 

 ence, and each table is devoted to the subject illustrated by the special 

 collection in the midst of which it stands. In the rotunda is a book- 

 case containing cyclopedias, and visitors who desire fuller information 

 are at liberty to go to the ^luseum library, and thence, if need be, to the 

 sectional libraries in the curators' laboratories. 



It is pleasant to be able to say that although over a thousand vol- 

 umes are thus exposed without surveillance in the public lialls, not 

 a single volume has been stolen, though many of tliem have been '• read 

 to death." 



TAXIDERMY IN THE MFSEUM. 



Allusion has been made from time to time in the reports to the work 

 of the Museum preparators in i)reparing objects for exliibition or study, 

 and the time seems now to luive come for a consideration of what lias 

 been accomplished and how this has been done. 



As early as 1875, when, by means of the appropriations for the exhibit 

 of the Museum at the Centennial Exliibition at Philadelphia, it became 

 for the first time possible to employ competent taxidermists, an effort 

 was made to secure the very best men available, and to have prepared 

 better specimens than were at that time to be found in any American 

 museum. Mr. Josepli Palmer and Mr. Julius Stoerzer, excellent work- 

 men of the old school, were the chief agents in the preparation of the 

 exhibit of mounted animals and casts shown in I^hiladelphia, and the 

 results, though, so far as accessories are c.oncerned. far below the pres- 

 ent standards, were in many instances (piite equal U> what has since 

 been done, as is indicated by the accompanying i)late of the group of 

 fur seals (PI. 31). Their work was greatly admired, and the intluenco of 

 the movement then just beginning soon spread to other instirutions. 



